Last April, Senior U.S. District Judge
Stephen Limbaugh ruled that computer and video games had "no conveyance of
ideas, expression or anything else that could possibly amount to free
speech" in a St. Louis County case that sought to limit children's access
to mature video games.

The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals disagreed, saying a "particularized
message" is not required when it comes to the First Amendment.

"If the First Amendment is versatile enough to 'shield [the] painting of
Jackson Pollock, music of Arnold Schoenberg, or Jabberwocky verse of Lewis
Carroll,' we see no reason why the pictures, graphic design, concept art,
sounds, music, stories, and narrative present in video games are not entitled to
a similar protection," the court said in its ruling. "The mere fact
that they appear in a novel medium is of no legal consequence."